Psychology

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Department Office
Stevenson Hall, 3115
(707) 664-2411
Fax: (707) 664-3113
https://psychology.sonoma.edu/

Department Chair
Melinda Milligan

For faculty information, please see Faculty   

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of mind, behavior and experience. From this foundation, psychologists have developed sub-disciplines that address many diverse aspects of human experience. Psychology is a field that requires one to apply focused knowledge, abilities, and skills in order to solve human problems. It is an extremely diverse field that attracts people with a wide variety of backgrounds, interests, and skills.

The Psychology Department

At the time of its founding in 1960, the department was allied with the humanistic and existential traditions in psychology. It offered the first graduate program in humanistic psychology and also helped to pioneer that field.

We currently offer a diverse array of traditional and contemporary approaches to studying human experience. Our goal is to empower students with psychological knowledge and practical skills to enable them to be effective agents of change in the world.

Program Learning Outcomes

The Psychology Department’s curriculum is arranged to develop specific skills in each student by graduation. It is designed to enable each student to:

• Describe key concepts, principles and overarching themes in psychology and apply to relevant contexts (i.e. ethical, clinical, personal, career, scientific, sociocultural). 
• Interpret and design basic psychological research.
• Use scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phenomena.
• Demonstrate skills that promote behavioral change at the individual, organizational, and community levels.
• Describe psychological concepts related to diversity and apply them in personal, professional, and/or clinical contexts. 
• Describe and apply evidence-based concepts and practices from psychology that promote well-being.

The Psychology BA Curriculum

In addition to a required set of core courses, the department’s curriculum focuses on five breadth areas to illustrate key sub fields in the discipline of psychology:

• Holistic: focuses on the essential wholeness of persons by developing knowledge and skills integral to health and growth, such as self-reflection, self-awareness and creativity.
• Clinical / Counseling: develops knowledge and skills in understanding and helping others, and in health-promoting behaviors.
• Developmental: investigates changes in persons over the life span, and explores how this knowledge may be used in applied settings such as in parenting, education, and community life.
• Social / Personality: focuses on how individual differences among people and the social context in which they live shape their emotions, thoughts and behavior.
• Cognitive / Physiological: explores the physiological foundations of human experience, as well as the mental processes involved in learning, memory, perception, and problem solving.

The department strongly recommends that students take courses in psychology and other disciplines to gain competence in diversity, including the areas of culture, race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, religion, and social class. All psychology faculty are committed to recognizing the importance of diversity to their course topics. However, the department offers specific courses that focus more explicitly on diversity issues and students’ development of multicultural competence. These courses are identified in the course descriptions and the semester course schedule.

Research Assistantships

The Psychology Department strongly recommends research assistantships for those students going on to graduate work in psychology at the master’s or doctoral levels. Many university graduate programs require students to have experience in conducting psychological research, as well as in analyzing data and writing up the results. In order to find out more about these research opportunities, students should consult with individual faculty members who are mentoring students in faculty research projects. Please see the psychology department website to identify the department’s faculty and their research areas. Students engaged in research assistantships often enroll in PSY 481, Research Internship (C/NC). A maximum of 8 units of Credit/No Credit classes may be applied to the major, including research internship units.

Special Studies

Students who wish to carry out independent study and research are encouraged to contact an individual faculty member of their choice. A maximum of 8 units of Credit/No Credit classes may be applied to the major, including special studies units.

Advising in Psychology

Each upper-division (junior/senior) psychology student is assigned to a faculty academic advisor. They may also see any other faculty advisor on a space available basis, as well as Psychology’s professional academic advisor.

Each lower-division (first-year/sophomore) psychology student is assigned to a professional academic advisor.

Students may access advising during advisors’ office hours either by appointment or on a space available basis. See the Advising Center website and the Psychology Department website for detailed advisor assignment and office hours information.

Advising is especially important before graduation and registration deadlines.

To make the most of their education, students are encouraged to consult the Psychology Department website, which has extensive career information and links to graduate schools and programs. Students are encouraged to do their own research on graduate opportunities and prerequisites.

Lower-Division Advising

During the first two years at SSU, psychology students take the lower-division major requirements (PSY 250, PSY 280, and MATH 165 or another approved statistics course) and lower-division GE courses. Students should meet with their assigned professional academic advisor regularly, including no later than the second semester of their sophomore year to begin planning their upper-division coursework.

Transfer Advising

Transfer students must attend transfer orientation and then meet with a psychology faculty advisor during their first semester. Please note that PSY 300 (Psychology of Well-Being) is the only required core course that must be taken at SSU. We advise students to complete PSY 300 their first year at SSU.

Careers in Psychology

A career in psychology gives opportunities to break new ground in science, to better understand yourself and others, to help people live richer and more productive lives, and to establish ongoing personal and intellectual growth in school and throughout your career.

Many people with psychology training find it rewarding to work directly with people—for example, helping them to overcome depression, or to stop smoking, training people on health behaviors, parenting, skills, etc. Others are excited by research questions on topics such as health and well being, decision-making, eating disorders, brain functioning, parenting skills, forensic work, and child development.

Careers: Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology

A bachelor’s degree in psychology means that you graduate with a strong liberal arts education and adequate preparation for entry-level employment in one of many career paths, including:

• Administration and management
• Aging, human services, and advocacy
• Behavior change consulting
• Behavioral Specialist
• Childhood Education
• Counseling
• Health services
• Marketing and public relations
• Human Resources
• Research Assistant
• Not-for-Profit Organizations
• Organizational consulting
• Probation and parole
• Psychiatric assistant
• Social service casework and advocacy
• Teaching

Careers: Graduate Work and Further Training

Students are encouraged to research graduate programs in their fields of interest to identify graduate prerequisites. Students should consult the psychology department website which has some career information and web links to graduate schools and programs.
Most master’s and doctoral programs and employers prefer applicants who, in addition to their academic background, have some kind of applied experience or research assistantship that provides hands-on learning in their field.

Traditionally, with a master’s or doctoral degree, people are employed in different settings such as education, government, private industry, non-profit organizations, research institutes, hospitals, and clinics. They work as professors teaching within their discipline at universities, community colleges, or high schools. Licensed psychologists provide individual or group therapy in private clinics, hospitals, the military, or schools. School counselors/psychologists work with students and their families to support healthy social, cognitive, and emotional development. People with advanced degrees are often hired as consultants to work on a variety of tasks related to their specific area of expertise (for example, designing marketing surveys, providing training to executives and other professionals, etc.).

Programs

• Psychology, BA

• Psychology, BA, Sample Four-Year Plan

• Psychology, BA, Sample Two-Year Plan

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